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Venus transit time-lapse June 5, 2012

Here’s a note I got from Craig and Tammy Temple, who live in Hendersonville, Tennessee. They’re a pair of top-notch astroimagers who have sent whatever they capture to me here at Astronomy magazine.

On June 5, 2012, we packed up our equipment and drove up to Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee, where we joined the Cumberland Astronomical Society for its public outreach of the Venus transit. While there, we captured all the data for this video. At the same time, we were sharing the views on our computer screen with the folks that streamed in and out to view this fantastic event.

This video is a time-lapse of the path of Venus as it transited the Sun from 5:05 P.M. until 7:13 P.M. CDT. The portion of the transit that we could see from our location started at 5:04 P.M. CDT and ended at 7:34 P.M. CDT when the Sun set behind a tree line. It was a real treat to be a part of this once-in-our-lifetime event since it will not happen again for 105 years.

In addition to seeing Venus transiting the Sun in this image, you can also see sunspots AR 1493, AR 1494, AR 1496, AR 1497, and AR 1499, as well as some nice filaments, flares, and prominences.

AR 1497 is the pair of sunspots to the upper left with AR 1494 below it. Directly to the right of AR 1497 is AR 1493 and the group of smaller sunspots just below that is AR 1496. AR 1499 is the region with the snake-like filament just below AR 1496. If you watch this video closely, you will also see a nice solar flare in the region of AR 1499 as well as the prominences along the solar limb dancing about.

Craig and Tammy always list their imaging and processing data, so here’s how they did it.